Adjustments: as per Hulda Clark’s advice, I used 1 tsp of Vitamin C powder in addition to the nutritional yeast (inactive yeast).. as a rising agent though. I also do not have a dough mixer.. so next time will probably ask my brother to help me with the kneading. My pandesal did not rise enough (probably have to do with the fact that I just used a whisk and the a wooden spoon to mix.. and I mixed it only for 6 minutes (instead of 10 to 15 minutes)

It was a hit! Am going to try this again on Saturday to feed our Cell group members 🙂 am excited.

Afterthought: We don’t have active yeast at home, so I used nutritional yeast. Nutritional yeast is dead yeast (but still filled with B vitamins and other minerals, which is why this is used as a supplement). Dead yeast cannot rise the dough. that’s why I added vitamin C. Forgot to add baking soda though. Good thing is, I used self-rising flour which already contains baking powder, so my pandesal did not end up brick-like. Baking soda/vitamin c mixture (1:1 ratio) is a good substitute for yeast. Same goes with baking soda/lemon juice. Next time, I am going to use either baking soda/vitamin c mix or baking soda/lemon juice mix as a substitue for yeast.

Why add Vitamin C powder?

The Vitamin C powder, not only inhibits mold growth, but also helps to create a acidic environment (as in sordough method) to help the yeast work better. I am wondering though, if I can remove the yeast all together, and use a sourdough variation of this pandesal instead (that means I have to start preparing the though on a Thursday or Friday night, to bake and serve it on a Saturday).

Are you a weekend mom like me?

Baking on a Saturday or Sunday, can be a bonding session with the kids. My 6 year old daughter, helped today and terribly enjoyed the process (except the waiting time for “resting” the dough.)

So what I did, is I made 3 different types of bread. Mixed the dough for the soft loaf bread first , then while waiting for it to rest, we started to mix the dough for the pandesal, and then later on mixed the ingredients for our cookies. I call this “layering”.

While waiting for the breads/cookies to rest, we practiced the piano (just like in the show “I can cook”).

Sometimes, being in a pinch, can squeeze the creative juices in us. Today is Mother’s Day, but since budget is really tight.. we really cant “eat out” or have a lavish Mother’s day lunch or dinner, until my next pay day. But what a treat this is! We actually baked Filipino bread rolls (pan desal), which is one of the comfort foods for Pinoys like us.

Zarah is actually eating my bread rolls (pan de sal)

Its an added bonus that this also fits in quite nicely into the WAP diet (tooth decay reversing protocol) for my daughter.

My niece, nephew, SIL and my brother enjoyed eating pandesal with the “pansit” (rice vermicelli or bee hoon) cooked by my brother. In the Philippines, pansit is considered a treat or a special main meal when celebrating birthdays and even Mothers’ day.. eating pandesal far from home.. also brings a bit of nostalgia.

Oh yeah, I just want to keep this happy feeling for longer this time around..